With a Predict & Win Contest, NIC and Social Pill crafted a UGC campaign called #NICSummerLeague. The objective of this campaign was to increase reach and engagement on Instagram by leveraging the popularity of the cricket season. To encourage participation, the brand offered prizes to 100 participants and at the end of the campaign, the brand reached 22.1 million accounts. Here's a case study on how they did it.
Category Introduction
As per industry reports, the Indian Ice Cream market is currently valued at USD 3.4 billion and is estimated to cross USD 5 billion by FY25, owing to the expansion of domestic brands beyond the metros.
Furthermore, a decline in out-of-home consumption has led to a focus on in-home consumption, with major players in the industry stating that more than 10 per cent of their ice cream business is generated via Quick Commerce (QC). The report also highlighted how Homegrown ice cream brands have become India's hot favourites, with consumers and investors eyeing this category.
Brand Introduction
NIC Honestly Crafted Ice Creams is a homegrown ice cream brand. As of today, NIC is present in 86 cities. It has about 16 parlours and almost 250 pickup points. It offers a range of about 50 flavours, including variants like Thandai, Modak, Gajar Halwa, Motichoor Ladoo Ice Creams, and so on.
Summary
The #NICSummerLeague was a ‘Predict & Win’ Contest launched during the cricket Season of 2023. The campaign ran from 17th March 2023 to 27th May 2023. The primary goal was to increase reach and engagement.
Every week, an Instagram contest was held, and people were asked to guess who would win in an upcoming match. 100 lucky participants who predicted correctly stood a chance to win a free NIC Honestly Crafted Ice Cream Tub.
*Flat Rs. 500 off on the Cart Value. It was only valid in cities where NIC Honestly Crafted Ice Cream is available.
Objective
The #NICSummerLeague campaign was designed to increase reach and engagement on Instagram by leveraging the popularity of the cricket season. The primary objective was to create a strong brand association between NIC and the cricket tournament while also increasing brand exposure and visibility.
Brief
The brand wanted to highlight the association between their ice cream and the cricket season, emphasizing its role as the perfect accompaniment for watching matches during the scorching summer.
Creative Idea
Custom team names and logos were designed using the brand's ice cream variants (For example, Mumbai Mixed Berries, Lucknow Paan, Chennai Tender Coconut, Delhi Gulab Jamun, Hyderabad Sheer Khurma, etc.), creating a sense of exclusivity and uniqueness that resonated with the audience.
Challenges
In India, it is pretty common for almost all brands to join the cricket frenzy. Nevertheless, distinguishing oneself in a saturated market poses a challenge for every brand. For this, logos were designed especially to give them a personal touch and a presence of their own.
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Execution
A cricket-themed 'Predict & Win' contest was introduced on Instagram, where NIC Honestly Crafted Ice Cream’s followers were asked to predict the outcome of 1 match, every week. To encourage participation, a prize of a free NIC Honestly Crafted Ice Cream Tub was offered every week to 100 participants who made accurate predictions
This was executed in three phases:
Phase 1: Pre-launch (Teaser video hinting at NIC Summer League’s return - to create hype)
A teaser video was created that served as a hint about the upcoming return of the NIC Summer League
The purpose was to generate excitement and anticipation among the audience, building up hype for the league's comeback
The video successfully sparked curiosity and set the highly-anticipated event. It left viewers intrigued and eager to know more about what the NIC Summer League had in store for them
Phase 2: Launch (Introduction of the contest including details about the giveaway, how to enter, rules, and prize information)
The contest was launched through a Video announcing the #NICSummerLeague Giveaway Contest
This video featured the team names, logos, participation guidelines and regulations, prize information, and the contest duration
A ThruPlay campaign was run on the launch video targeting cricket lovers ranging from 18-45 age groups from tier 1 cities to create a pool of users that could remarket to and create lookalikes off.
Two layers of interest were formed for the ThruPlay campaign:
- 1st layer: IPL, SportsKeeda, IPL Teams, etc.
- 2nd layer: Foodie, Desserts, Zomato, Ice cream, etc.
Phase 3: Post-launch (Disseminating engaging giveaway contest posts - 1 per week)
Every week, an engaging contest giveaway post was posted, asking followers to predict the outcome of the match through the comments.
At the end of the week, through random selection, 100 lucky participants who followed all the steps specified and made accurate predictions won a free 500 ml NIC Ice Cream Tub.
Engagement campaigns were also run on the Contest Posts to guarantee entries through scalability.
Results
During the campaign, the content reached 3,106,541 users on social media, with a total of 3,480,978 million impressions. People engaged with the content 97,982 times, and 6577 people entered the campaign's contest through social media.
Commenting on the campaign, Aditya Premani, Head of Social & Co-founder of Social Pill said, "Given the multitude of brands capitalizing on the IPL during the cricket season, brands generally encounter difficulties in standing out from the competition and capturing attention. We decided that we wanted to be a part of the cricket narrative in a unique way. That's when the idea of creating our own teams and league, which closely correlated to the on-field action, came to us. Thus, the NIC Summer League was born, featuring teams like Mumbai Mixed Berries, Lucknow Paan, Chennai Tender Coconut, Delhi Gulab Jamun, Hyderabad Sheer Khurma, etc.
For the Instagram community, we wanted to offer our audience an engaging fantasy game experience based on actual on-ground results. This innovative approach allowed us to generate significant Reach and Engagement while also allowing our audience and community to win ice creams and be a part of the infectious love and celebration of cricket.
The campaign proved to be immensely successful. In slightly over two months, we surpassed our previous two months' performance by a mile. We expanded our reach to 22.1 million accounts, a substantial increase of 148%, and engaged with 200,000 users - an impressive growth of 140%."
Adding to the thoughts, Shamika Erande, Sr. Manager - Marketing at NIC Honestly Crafted Ice Creams also remarks, “We wanted to establish a connection of ice creams, summer and the prime occasion of the season: Cricket! underscoring its significance as the ideal companion for enjoying matches during the scorching summer, given that nearly every brand was leveraging the cricket season it was challenging to build brand recall in a crowded market.
Due to our ongoing partnership with Social Pill, carving out space and recall for the brand in the digital space was possible. Resulting in increased engagement and a broader reach.”
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